Valentine's Day
by Pikalex
Summary: It's Valentine's Day and Sips has big plans for celebrating the holiday with Sjin, but things don't exactly go his way. Fluffy, romancy, not going to be explicit. The last chapter has an alternate M-rated ending that is posted as a separate story, so if you want pure fluff you can read this safely. Sips/Sjin.
1. Chapter 1

It was Valentine's day, and Sips was going to do it right. He'd never admit it but he loved the holidays now that he had Sjin around, he wanted to celebrate them all even though he had to try and maintain his cool guy persona. He'd had so many Christmases and Valentine's Days and Thanksgivings pass by without someone to share it with and had almost completely put them out of his mind to avoid the loneliness. But now it was like being a little kid again and rediscovering all these special days, he'd celebrate the hell out of Lief Ericson Day if he could get away with it. And today they didn't have an obligation to go help out the girl guides so he had Sjin all to himself. He'd thought about what to do and decided on the classic, roses on the bed, candlelit dinner, sure he'd never heard of anyone doing that in real life but it's gotta be so traditional for a reason!

Amazingly, Sjin had remembered what day it was, usually he was too caught up in whatever they were working on to really keep track of things like that. He'd woken Sips up with kisses and tender words and Sips had happily reciprocated with some deliciously not-so-tender words and action of his own, and neither one of them had complained when the sun was high in the sky by the time they were dressed and ready to get back to work. Sips had to hide his smile as he told Sjin to "stop being so goddamn adorable already, geeze" as the architect laughed and flew off to do a little more decorating of the hydrofacility. And the ding-dong didn't even know that Sips had even more planned. "God, I really am the most awesome boyfriend that's ever lived aren't I" Sips smugly thought to himself as he hopped the perimeter fence in search of some fresh roses.

He hadn't expected to go far but he'd only found purple and yellow flowers near the compound, and he wasn't going to half ass this, nothing but red roses would do, Sjin deserved the best. Finally he spotted some at the edge of a cave entrance and ran over, bending down to pick them. When he heard the telltale hissing he only had time to turn around, instinctively twisting his body and stepping backwards, forgetting that there was a hole behind him, and say "Fu-" before the creeper exploded, sending his already falling body down the hole with violent force, coming to a crunching halt on the cobblestone. As Sips lay blinking up at the sky and processing the pain spreading across his body he realized that not bothering to put on his nanosuit this morning was definitely a bad idea.

He started to try and sit up, shaking at the thought of how close that'd been, if he hadn't been already falling backwards when the creeper exploded he would have taken it full on and he might not have made it. He felt boiling anger at himself rising up like bile, that he'd been so careless and could have disappeared like that, with Sjin not even knowing what had happened. Then he realized that it was pretty dark down here and lying around wounded and unarmoured was another very very bad idea. He stumbled to his feet cursing, just as a skeleton emerged from the shadows and readied it's bow, and he franticly scrabbled up out of the cave, arrows coming much too close for comfort. Back in the sunlight and finding the coast clear Sips sank against a tree with a sigh, running his hands over his torn shirt to check just how bad the damage was. His arms were a little singed and scraped as was the front of his chest, but not too bad. The real problem was on his back, where he'd landed so hard on the cobblestone. He didn't think anything was broken but it was gonna be a hell of a bruise, and from the blood that stained his hands there must be some pretty deep cuts. There was no way he'd be able to bandage them himself, but there was no way he could tell Sjin either. Today was supposed to be perfect, Sips could see in his head clearly the ashen face Sjin would have if he learned how close he'd come to losing Sips. And that wouldn't do at all. He'd just have to sneak into the house, put on his nanosuit to hide the damage, and play it cool. And find some new roses he thought ruefully, looking down to the charred stems he was still holding in his hand.


	2. Chapter 2

Sips hissed as he peeled his scorched shirt off his back, trying to keep quiet so Sjin wouldn't know he was inside. He thanked his lucky stars that he hadn't run into Sjin on his way here, it'd been a while and no doubt he'd be eager to share whatever he'd been working on.

Finally he had a fresh spacesuit on and pulled the nanosuit over it, just having changed clothes would be suspicious but putting armour on made sense. And he was just in time, since he heard Sjin calling his name outside. Slipping on the flying ring he really should have remembered that morning he shouted back "Keep your pants on Sjin, geeze, I'm coming!"

Stepping out the door into the compound he was surprised to not actually see Sjin anywhere nearby. "Sjin?" he said with uncertainty, but he heard a giggle and turned around just as Sjin jumped off the roof of the house where he'd been hiding, floating down to land right in from of Sips and immediately reaching a calloused hand up to cup Sips' face and kiss him with pure joy and carefreeness. Sips smiled into it, relaxing as his worries and pain fell away. He hummed happily into Sjin's lips, though he would deny ever having done such a thing if anyone even pointed it out. Pulling away and nuzzling Sips' neck Sjin said "come on Sipsy, I've got some real cool stuff done."

"Sure" Sips grinned, grabbing onto Sjin's hand and letting himself be lead.

While being around Sjin had certainly cheered him right back up flying around and laying blocks wasn't a lot of fun with his damaged back, he could feel that the stretching and moving around was preventing the wounds from healing. His thoughts were broken by Sjin asking for some glass blocks and seeing a chance to work on dinner he quickly volunteered to go grab some.

Fresh steak would have been a good idea but he definitely didn't think venturing back out into the wild would be wise. Maybe they had some in a chest? Pulling asides saplings, seeds, branches, and miscellaneous junk Sips finally exclaimed "Aha! Got you, you mothertrucker" as he pulled a couple dirty greying steaks out of the chest.

"Cooking kills bacteria and junk, right?" Sips thought as he brushed dirt off the steaks and climbed downstairs. Throwing them in the furnace he heard the door upstairs open and Sjin ask "Sips? Are you in here?"

Crap! Why did it have to be so damn hard to keep this a surprise? "Yeah I was just, uh, throwing some sand in the furnace" Sips said as he climbed back up, hoping Sjin wouldn't question his story. But the builder had his head down in a chest and was still completely engrossed in his plans, ladening himself with some more materials, "aw great Sips, this is gonna look flippin awesome. I found some glass in here so don't worry about it, let's go work on the windows!" He couldn't say no when Sjin was asking like that, he'd just have to come pick up the steaks later.

"Yeah sure, this is gonna be fantastic" he said with a smile.

Worn out from the trials of the day Sips fell into a tired trance doing the tedious work of filling in all of the huge windows of the hydrofacility. So he was shocked when Sjin said "Hey it's getting pretty dark, we should probably turn in for the night." Looking at the sun setting on the horizon he realized that none of his plans were quite done.

God damn, he was gonna have to do this quickly.

Suddenly wide awake he said "Yeah, good idea Sjin, hey I think I left something in the sorting facility, I'll just go, uh, find it" he said as he flew off as fast as he could, leaving a bemused Sjin in his wake. Sliding down the ladder he checked the furnace, empty! But of course, the wooden pipe would have sucked the steaks out when the finished. "Gaaah" Sips said, pulling at his hair when he realized that they would have entered the mess of the sorting system and he had no idea what chest cooked steaks would go in. First he checked organics, the obvious choice, but no luck. He ran around the sorting facility like a mad man, but no sign of steak could be found. He could hear Sjin landing outside and knew he couldn't go up and check the system without being found out, so returning to the organics chest he grabbed a couple questionable apples he'd noticed early and stuck them in his pockets just in time.

Sjin open the door and peered in, "come on Sips you big dumb dumb, it's night time now! You've been acting so weird today, let's get back to bed and relax" he said with that little eyebrow wiggle that Sips knew Sjin thought was seductive but was really just goddamn adorable. "Sure Sjin" Sips said, trying to keep the nerves that were bundled in his chest calm.

They were walking up the stairs to their bedroom when Sips realized that the flowers he'd picked were still in his pack, not on the bed. "Sjin! Wait!" he shouted and Sjin stopped, looking around startled and giving Sips a puzzled look. "I… uh, have a surprise for you. So just wait here a minute okay?" Sjin broke into a glowing smile, "awww Sips, you have surprise for me? You big softy." "Yeah yeah, you can thank me later, just wait a minute" Sips said, feeling that maybe Sjin wasn't going to be so happy when he'd seen what a mess he'd made of the romantic evening.

Pulling the roses out of his pack he placed them around the bed, not quite sure how he was supposed to arrange them and after a couple attempts just tossing them all haphazardly. He pulled out the apples, realizing there wasn't a table in their bedroom. And to top it all off, he observed just how dark it was and belatedly noticed the 'candle' part of 'candelit dinner' had been completely forgotten. "Uhh, Sjin, do you have any torches?" he called down in embarrassment. "Yeah I've got a couple, is it ready?" Sjin answered with obvious excitement. "Yeah… yeah I guess it is."

He hung his head and braced himself for Sjin's inevitable disappointment.


	3. Chapter 3

Author's Note: In the process of writing this I was very surprised in that a very much M-rated naughty ending came to me. I will post that ending as a separate story so people who prefer pure fluff without any smut can just finish this story in peace, but if you want the alternate ending just check it out and I'll note in this story where it diverges. Cheers!

Sjin came up the stairs, heart thudding with anticipation. He had no idea what to expect. Opening the door and holding a torch, he saw Sips standing by the bed looking sheepish. He was holding two apples, and roses were on the bed. Whole flowers, dirty roots and thorns and all.

He felt an almost uncontrollable urge to laugh at the ridiculousness of the whole scene but kept it in, seeing the taut lines of nervousness on Sips' face.

"I uh, made us some dinner" Sips said, extending an apple, and looking away as his cheeks reddened. This was goddamn disastrous but he couldn't see anyway out now that it'd gone this far. Caught up in his embarrassment he didn't really notice Sjin approaching him until he felt the apple being taken out of his hand.

Slowly turning his gaze to peek at Sjin, bracing himself for a look of terrible disappointment, Sips was surprised to see Sjin was grinning and blushing slightly.

"Sips this is the most romantic thing anyone has ever done for me."

Sips relaxed a bit, but not completely, saying "aw hell Sjin, it's a fucking mess, nothing went right."

Sjin couldn't help but let a little giggle escape but said "it's fine Sips! You've put so much work into this, it's wonderful," pulling Sips down to sit on the bed but yelping and jumping up again as a thorn poked him.

Sips scowled at the offending rose, "this shit doesn't even make sense, why would you put roses on a bed? Look at this mess!" "I think it's supposed to just be the petals Sips" Sjin said, carefully sitting back down and cupping Sips' face in his hand before the pale man had a chance to get wrapped up in embarrassment again. Caressing Sips' hair and face in a way he knew would be soothing Sjin started unbuckling the nanosuit with his other hand, purring "I think that the perfect way to put this together is with a nice massage."

Sips moaned in agreement, floating on a cloud of relief and relaxation at Sjin's delicate touches. The armour removed Sjin slid the spacesuit down Sips' shoulders but was surprised as Sips hissed in pain and he felt sticky gashes and scabs on Sips' back. "Sip! Oh my god, what is this!" he gasped, fumbling to pull out another torch to get a better look.

Sips signed deeply and put his head in his hands. He'd forgotten that there was one more thing to go wrong. Fucking fantastic.

"I was out getting the flowers when a creeper jumped me. I didn't want to ruin the mood. Just leave it Sjin."

Filled with worry but also pity for how completely despondent his partner looked Sjin just tsked, telling Sips to stay where he was and returning quickly with bandages and water. The way that Sips' gestured and shouted and swore most people thought they had a good idea of what an angry or upset Sips looked like. But they were wrong. That was Sips' normal, when he really was feeling strong emotions he just locked down completely, not uttering a word and staring ahead. It scared Sjin to think of Sips like that on his own, trapped in his own worries and thoughts. But he calmed himself; Sips wasn't alone anymore and Sjin knew how to deal with this.

(NSFW ending branches here)

Sips was still sitting as he had been, filled with melancholy and dark thoughts. Wordlessly Sjin sat down beside him and started tenderly wiping the blood and dirt away.

He started to mutter softly, a mix of lego talk and loving words, "So you remember that satellite station idea? I was thinking we'd build this big staircase going up to it. Maybe have some fences, scaffold….. Today has been so nice, you're making me feel like a princess Sips, you're going to spoil me rotten… that sandstone made a pretty good building material, I'll have to use it more often… No one makes me feel special like you…."

And slowly Sips relaxed under his ministrations, leaning his head back to rest against Sjin, moving a hand onto his knee.

When the bandaging was done Sjin wrapped his arms around Sips' waist, just sitting in the light of the torch.

"You're too good for me Sjin" Sips said with a sigh that was more of acceptance than sadness and he could feel the twitch of Sjin's moustache that meant the taller man was smiling, aware that Sips was out of his funk. "Well, I am pretty damn fantastic" Sjin said teasingly, gently nuzzling Sips' neck.

"You really are Sjin, I mean it. I…. I love you" Sips said, turning to look Sjin in the eye. Sjin looked shocked for a moment before laughing, a gorgeous joyful sound that warmed Sips right in the depth of his heart, and said "I love you too Sips."

And even though the bed was a mess of prickly roses, the steaks were lost somewhere the pipes, and the apples had been abandoned at some point during the evening, neither one of them could really be any happier.


End file.
